by Jayson Hawkins
Police occupy a unique place in a free society. They are empowered to enforce the public will upon the very public that empowers them. They alone are entrusted with the power to use lethal force, while at the same time their safety enjoys special protection under the ...
by Jayson Hawkins
The proliferation of police procedurals over the past few decades has made virtually everyone who owns a TV familiar with the climactic scene in the interrogation room – detectives trap a suspect in a lie or inconsistency even as they lean in to physically corner the suspect. ...
by Jayson Hawkins
The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way we live and conduct our business, yet some of those changes were long past due. Many relate to safety, others to convenience, and a few —namely with the U.S. Supreme Court — have brought transparency.
For the first time in ...
by Jayson Hawkins
In 2015, the decades-long battle waged by social justice activists in Chicago culminated in the passage of a reparations bill for victims of torture at the hands of the Chicago police. Five years after this historic victory, both victims and advocates are taking stock of what has ...
by Jayson Hawkins
The due process clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides that “no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.” The intent of the amendment was to restrain government actors from arbitrary or capricious acts of violence, imprisonment, ...
by Jayson Hawkins
A string of recent polls suggests a dramatic shift in American public opinion about the use of force by police, especially against people of color. The Washington Post released a poll in early June that found 69% of Americans believe the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis ...
by Jayson Hawkins
Phillip K. Dick made the concept of “pre-crime” famous in his novel Minority Report, which described a future where people with “pre-cognitive” abilities could predict a crime and those predictions were used to arrest and convict “offenders.”
Without the luxury of pre-cognitive abilities, modern police agencies ...
by Jayson Hawkins
Despite the fact that the rights to free speech and the petitioning of the government for redress of grievances are enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, the American government has a long history of treating dissenters and progressive activists like criminals. Dissent was actually criminalized during World War ...
by Jayson Hawkins
A prime consideration in determining guilt and assessing punishment for a crime has long been the mental state of the accused. Legal precedents that weighed the workings of the human mind can be traced to the 17th century, according to Deborah Denno of Fordham University School of ...
by Jayson Hawkins
Automated license-plate readers (“ALPRs”) have come into wider use among law enforcement circles, touted for making the jobs of police easier and more efficient.
The technology employs high-speed cameras in cop cars, on top of streetlights, and other locations to record the license plate of every single ...
